The Senate just passed a defense spending bill with a top line of $886 billion. Added to other national security-related funds like nuclear weapons modernization and homeland security, the U.S. is poised to spend more than one trillion on defense in 2024, with more than half going to military contractors. Julia Gledhill, a Pentagon spending expert with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), joins us this week to bring us up to speed on the Congressional shenanigans involving the budget, including "emergency spending" that will allow the government to blow past spending limits, Ukraine and Taiwan aid that is expected to be slipped into a supplemental aid package, and how contractors are benefiting from the war in Ukraine, and will continue to do so, long after the conflict ends.
In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about the heartbreaking conditions on the ground in Haiti and whether a multinational peacekeeping force would help or hurt the situation. We also discuss the coup in Sudan and how US military assistance has actually made things worse in the African "coup belt."
More from Julia Gledhill:
1) The ultimate All-American slush fund, with William Hartung, Tom Dispatch, 7/22/23
2) Defense Industry Crying Wolf on Its Finances, POGO, 5/22/23
3) Lawmakers quietly gave weapons firms bailout for unproven inflation burden, Responsible Statecraft, 3/3/23
Julia Gledhill: The military industrial complex is getting away with virtual murder